BlackBerry Chief Fires Back
Research In Motion Ltd. co-CEO Michael Lazaridis lashed out at governments seeking to ban his company's BlackBerry phones, saying they risk undermining the growth of electronic commerce by demanding access to secure communications and transactions.
Context & Ripple Effects
Research In Motion's security architecture — the reason BlackBerry became the default corporate handset — is now the flashpoint: governments are seeking to ban the phone or demand access to its secure communications and transactions, and co-CEO Michael Lazaridis has publicly fired back, warning that such demands risk undermining the growth of electronic commerce itself. The story moved widely on the wires, and Reuters's pickups added two pointed details: U.S. authorities are already able to tap BlackBerry messaging, and the European Commission has chosen iPhone and HTC handsets over BlackBerry.
The confrontation lands just months after RIM released new applications targeting wireless security and mobile-device management in February 2010 — a deliberate deepening of the enterprise-security franchise that governments are now contesting.
First-order effects
- Governments pressing for access to encrypted BlackBerry traffic now face a public refusal from RIM's co-CEO, forcing each country to choose between banning the device and accepting RIM's existing controls.
- Institutional buyers are already defecting: Reuters reports the European Commission selected iPhone and HTC handsets over BlackBerry at the same moment Lazaridis mounted his defense.
Second-order effects
- If RIM concedes access in any single market, the confidentiality guarantee anchoring its corporate base weakens everywhere — handing Apple and HTC an opening in precisely the government and enterprise accounts BlackBerry depends on.
- Any access concession would hit more than handset sales: RIM's early-2010 expansion into wireless security and mobile-device-management software ties its business model directly to the encryption posture governments are challenging.
Third-order effects
- The dispute previews a durable collision between state surveillance demands and encrypted commerce: device makers face a choice between country-by-country compliance regimes and market exits, with enterprise and consumer trust in mobile transactions hanging on where that line settles.
The trend: National-security access demands are turning strong device encryption from a vendor's core selling point into a regulatory battleground that will shape which platforms governments and enterprises standardize on.